America East Tournament to remain in Albany

The America East Conference announced today it will go ahead with plans to hold the 2009 men’s basketball tournament at UAlbany’s SEFCU Arena on March 6-8.

There was some doubt after the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference decided to move its tournament to Times Union Center on the same weekend.

Here’s the announcement from America East commissioner Patrick Nero:

”During our Annual Presidents’ and Athletic Directors’ meetings this week, we received updates on our 2009 Men’s Basketball Championship in Albany. Both groups came away from these meetings confident that we remain on track for a successful championship in March. The concept of having two men’s Basketball conference championships in the same city, the same weekend is a new one. While it may present some challenges, we have a very good working relationship with the MAAC and both conferences will work together to address any issues. We feel having both tournaments on the same weekend will give Capital Region fans the unique opportunity to enjoy several days of NCAA Division I basketball. It’s not only a dream weekend for the hoops junkie, but a time for the casual fan to become a big fan and for first-time fans to experience all the excitement of college basketball.”

Much thanks for providing that link. Good for Antione. A very nice kid and a solid player for UAlbany when the program was struggling through its infancy in Division I. Pretty surprising that he got an invitation, though. He was a borderline CBA player for the Albany Patroons a couple of years back. But I’ll post this in a separate entry and see if I can get a hold of Antione before he heads to Vegas.

Mark,
No problem. If I remember correctly, he played during the Will Brand era. I was surprised by the invite too, especially considering the number of guards that the Knicks have. Good for him, and I hope he raises the eyebrows of other teams!

Wow…Earv Opong. I never thought I’d see that name again. I was a UAlbany student from 97 to 01 and covered the team for the ASP for three years, so the Great Danes of my day were Todd Cetnar and Andre Duncan (not sure how far back your watching of UAlbany goes). I’d love to know what happened to some of those guys.